The removal of fats, oils and grease floating in roasting pans and pots in which meats have been rendered is troublesome. The basic process of removal is by pouring it off, which if most often impractical, or by scooping and or skimming it off. For this purpose spoons, cups and ladles have been used, all dependent upon careful manipulation, and usually with difficulty. Therefore, separating devices have been proposed but with considerable complexity and not altogether satisfactory in regard to facility. For example, a layer of accumulated fat can be lifted off when chilled, but this is not always possible, as and when about to serve a meal and fatty drippings must be removed for making a gravy or the like. Thus, it is the floating top layer of grease and/or fat that is of concern here, the top liquid layer floating in a roaster or stock-pot. Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide a skimming device in the form of a ladle that will skim the fat or oil floating on the top of food or other liquids, such as broth or soup, for its removal and subsequent good use or disposition. Essentially, the skimming device herein disclosed is a ladle, a deep bowled long handled vessel adapted for dipping away a floating layer of fat or oil.
Hot fats, oil and grease rise and form a uniform layer thereof floating on underlying liquids in the processes of roasting and cooking in roasters and pots. The thickness of said fatty layers will vary dependent upon the amount of renderings available in the meats being roasted or cooked. Often there is an excess fatty layer to be removed, or at least reduced, it being an object of this invention to selectively remove said fattey layer, and at least substantially so. To these ends the ladle-like device of the present invention has a vessel for the reception of liquid fat, a locator means for leveling the device with the top surface of the fatty layer, and at least one port located at said top surface for transfer of a determined depth of liquid fat from said fatty layer thereof. In practice, said determined depth is very small so that a thin layer of fat can be skimmed, while there is a multiplicity of peripheral ports so that transfer of liquid is into the vessel. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide locator means, preferably in the form of a peripheral flange that is manipulated into a level position with respect to the top surface of the fatty layer, whereby capillary attraction is used as a visual gage.
It is an object of this invention to combine indicator means with a peripheral port or ports whereby the depth of said port or ports in the fatty layer is predetermined. Thus, there is a limit to the isolated extraction when the fatty layer is reduced to that depth. Accordingly, the depth of the transfer port or ports is restricted beneath the locator means as shown in the form of a continuous peripheral flange. However, this restriction does not limit the free flow of liquid fat through the transfer port or ports. Therefor and in accordance with this invention, the transfer port or ports are also horizontally disposed as they open through the peripheral flange, a unique feature made possible by the shut-off feature of the mold in the manufacture of these particular devices. It is to observed that the skimming device as it is disclosed herein is a monolithic molding, for example of injection molded plastic, in simple male and female mold sections without the use of slides or movable cores, the transfer ports being formed by offset shut-off features in the mold.